Where Finland meets Russia

I cycled more than 1,300km of the Finland section of the
Iron Curtain trail. This shot was taken on my second day, when the landscape changed dramatically from lakeland and forests to fields near the village of Värtsilä, close to the Russian border.
All photographs: Laurel Robbins on Instagram

Kivivaara to Lieksa

Finland is not all flat! There were plenty of hills along this 50-mile stretch between Kivivaara and Lieksa, part of which was on a remote gravel road. This was day five of my trip, and the wind, rain and hills made it tough going.

Rudolph, the blue-eyed reindeer

Veering off the Iron Curtain trail to head to Utsjoki, I saw several white reindeer – but not all were true albinos like this one, which had blue eyes.
• Follow Laurel’s adventures on Instagram and on her blog at monkeysandmountains.com